Court set to decide between watchdog and journalist in long running ‘truth’ dispute

Another lengthy legal battle between the police watchdog and an investigative journalist is set for a public airing on Friday 8th July, 2016.

A hearing in Leeds County Court, before His Honour Judge Mark Gosnell, will decide a number of issues dividing three employees of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and Neil Wilby.

The two caseworkers and a senior manager employed by the IPCC cannot, presently, be named for legal reasons.

In May 2014, the IPCC gave open-chequebook funding to their three lay claimants in order to launch legal action grounded in claims of harassment over articles that had been written about them. One of the original claimants, caseworker Mohammed Ejaz, dropped out of the case unexpectedly, and was substituted a few days before the first court hearing, with another IPCC employee taking his place.

After the IPCC had spent well over £100,000 of public money, the case against Mr Wilby was settled in his favour on the day the trial should have commenced in December, 2014. A consent order was agreed between the parties and, subsequently, sealed by the court.

The matters to be heard by HHJ Gosnell on 8th July concern, firstly, the terms of the Consent Order. Each side alleges the other has broken them. Secondly, the judge has to decide whether consent to include the names of the IPCC employees, in four articles Mr Wilby has written, can be given.

One of the terms of the Order was that Mr Wilby has to approach the IPCC for consent to name any of the three lay claimants in his articles, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld.

In the case of three other articles the IPCC, at first, unreasonably, withheld permission then capitulated on either threat, or filing, of legal action. It is the four remaining articles, where permission to name has been withheld, that are still in issue.

The IPCC’s lay claimants are also seeking an order to have the most contentious of the remaining articles, Liar, Liar. Pants on Fire taken down from Mr Wilby’s website. They have not sought any interlocutory relief, despite the article being published in January, 2016.

The Liar, liar article is fiercely critical of other senior figures within the IPCC, notably Chief Executive, Lesley Longstone, and a number of lawyers who have acted for them in this claim. None of whom have made application, or complaint, about the piece.

Counsel for Mr Wilby is well known human rights barrister, Ian Brownhill. Representations will also be made by Mr Brownhill challenging the legality of the use of public funds by the IPCC’s lay claimants in a hearing of this nature.

There are also now two other articles, published since proceedings were issued by Mr Wilby, upon which Mr Brownhill will ground further arguments over consent being unreasonably withheld. They include this one, for which no response at all was provided by the IPCC to a request seeking consent to name their employees.

Sara Mansoori (who appeared for the applicant in the recent PJS celebrity threesome case) will represent the IPCC’s three lay claimants. She is instructed by disgraced Leeds solicitors, Cohen Cramer.

The case is likely to attract a good deal of press attention following the IPCC’s recent capitulation in a harassment case concerning multiple award-winning Croydon Advertiser journalist, Gareth Davies.

The IPCC press office were approached for reaction to this article. Their response was provided anonymously: “Thank you for giving us the opportunity to comment, however we will not be supplying one. Your email has been forwarded to the appropriate teams within the organisation“.

Those wishing to attend court for the hearing on 8th July may find this HMCTS Court Finder link useful:

Hi Neil – Wishing you all the best. Challenging the regulatory bodies is not an easy task especially when they have public funds and individuals have to self fund. The majority of those who have appealed to the IPCC get no satisfaction and they get away with not doing their jobs because there is a lack of people who do what you do. There is no appropriate balance of fairness, transparency and efficiency.